The Beginning: The Animorphs Saga Truly now begins
by itsaPEZwitch
Summary: This is the story of six brave warriors, of their beginnings and their ends. It begins where the story leaves off but it ends before that time, before that ever happened....if it ever happened...The One is not what you think it is....
1. The Survivor

I wanted so much to live. I wanted so much to stay and not leave. No answer would matter to me, but just the same, I wanted to know what I guess any dying person wants to know. 

"Answer me this Ellimist: Did I...did I make a difference? My life and my...my death...was I worth it? Did my life really matter?" 

"Yes." He said. "You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered." 

"Yeah, okay then. Okay then." 

I wondered if - 

I felt my thoughts diminish and my life slowly fade as I.... I saw through everything! I saw Tobias crying and Toby running into the bridge talking to them. I saw the Visser surrender and Tobias take my ashes. I saw Jake, alone, apart from the rest of the world sit, staring at my memorial. I saw Marco, laughing throwing parties, finally getting dates. I saw Cassie working for the white house, helping the Hork-bajir and meeting someone...his name was Ronnie. I saw Ax, or Prince Aximilli, as he was no called, on the ship, the blade ship where I was killed...he was examining a hair when everything exploded in a suddenly white flash and he was gone. Jake remained depressed but eventually got better, Marco still needed a reality check...and tobias.... tobias was living as a hawk, no one but Cassie and Toby ever heard from him, I wanted to reach out to him, to touch him. But all of this information was hitting me within a millisecond. I saw them name the ship, name it the _Rachel_. Yes I though happily. I would approve. I saw their journey through space, how Tobias was distant, Marco was unbelievably loud and then I saw The One, he had started off of me. He was a part of me. An evil that I thought no one could touch. When I died, he expanded, he took over everything he found, he was the rage that had built up inside of me. The hate, the anger, the intelligence, yet he was insane. Actually I shouldn't say he, I should mostly say it. Then, suddenly, as soon as Jake ordered to ram into the blade ship, it stopped, everything stopped and I found myself, in my human form, standing in a vast emptiness, pure white surrounded me.

I looked over myself, my wounds were gone, and they had suddenly vanished within seconds. My hair in place, I wasn't wearing a morphing outfit though, I was wearing something else, and a sort of strange gown that I could not make out where it came from yet it seemed familiar. I blinked and when my eyes opened I saw space all around me. I saw The _Rachel_, suspended in time, about to collide with the blade ship. It was suicide, they wouldn't live, even they knew it but it was the only thing that Jake could think of. I saw another way. 

As soon as I thought of it…I was there. There inside of the very blade ship I was killed on. I looked at myself and my wounds were gone, I was back to normal and as healthy as I would be when I first demorph. But there was something different about me now…I looked different. From what I could see I had brown hair and dark blue eyes. Why was I different? Was this a trick of the Ellimist? _No_ I though silently. The Ellimist wouldn't bring me back. It has to be something else… I looked around and saw "The One." It stood there, melding from one form to another, threatening Jake. I had time…I had time to save them, to stop Jake from ramming into the blade ship. I would use that time. 

It suddenly stopped talking to them. It shivered as though it felt the presence of a ghost. I felt the rage, the anger bubbling up inside of me. I felt it all and wished to kill it, to kill the thing that would surely destroy all humans. But I didn't, I had to be careful, sneaky.

"You seem to have the chills." Marco smirked; I could hear his sarcasm from the speakers next to the view screen. I quietly stepped into view. There they were, Jake, Marco, Tobias and three people I didn't recognize. Jake was taller, and Marco…well Marco was still about the same height he was the last time I had seen him. Tobias looked older for a hawk; he must have been a middle-aged hawk by now. His razor sharp gaze caught mine as the creature turned to face me.

"You." He said accusingly as I smiled.

"Miss me?" I pulled the dracon beam out from behind my back and shot him in the head. He was knocked out, but I knew that he wouldn't be for long, he remembered me and from my current form. That was bad. Obviously whoever had brought me here didn't want them to recognize me. 

The one melded and turned back into the now dead human controller. The rest of the controllers were dead also…their lives had been destroyed because of it…because of me, I wouldn't let that go on. Jake was looking at me on the view screen; he had a dumbfounded expression on his face. The rest of the crew walked up to the view screen; there were six of them…

"Uh…hi?" Jake said quietly, his voice had deepened and he now looked like an adult, probably in his early twenties.

"What year is it?" I asked him, "I need to know how long I was gone…on the blade ship I mean." I quickly recovered.

"Year 2005." He said. "How did you sneak up on it?" He asked. "That's my secret, may I beam aboard…with your permission and a guard of course. This ship gives me the creeps, too many things have happened." He agreed and in ten minutes someone named Jeanne and Marco came on the ship.

I walked over to them and tripped halfway to them._ Not very graceful Rachel,_ I thought Marco laughed and Jeanne shushed him, with her weapon drawn. "Yeah, don't worry I'm fine." I said as I lifted myself up, face down on the floor. I froze in midair; there was a stain of blood on the floor. I had been in this very room, I had been killed here, the dry blood on the floor was human, and it was mine. Marco looked at me then at the floor.

"Were you one of the ones that killed her, are you morph capable?" He asked me quietly as I rose off of the floor.

I looked into his eyes, although he had grown and changed it was still Marco. "Yes, I saw her die, I am very sorry but I am not morph capable." I said, trying to hold onto my last ounce of strength restraining me from crying.

They brought me into the ship with guns pointed at me and did a sort of yeerk test. They held me captive for 3 days not giving me anything but food and water and an occasional bathroom break. I passed the test and then was allowed on the deck with the crew. They thought I knew everything about the yeerks, "The One" and what was going on so I tried to piece together things that I knew, things I had seen in my death, try to convince them that I knew what they thought I should know.

"The One is a being that was created off of someone…" I said trying to hide some of it back, I didn't want them to know that they were facing me times 100, with superpowers that would knock you out. The One was the part of me, which in the end accepted Crayak's offer for absolute power, Crayak didn't want anyone, not even the Ellimist about it, me so he created him in secret. In a place so far out in space that no one hardly went there.

Tobias looked at me with his intense gaze. Your holding things back, tell us everything you know. He said, he sounded hard. Different, as though he had forgotten how to speak or act human almost all together. For that I cried, tears rolled down my face and I tried to catch them but they had seen it. 

"What's wrong?" Jake said, walking closer to me as he spoke. I didn't reply and just started talking about the one again; I decided that if they could defeat it, they needed everything. 

"The One was created off of the part of the lost Animorph that had accepted Crayak's offer. In her last breath part of her had hoped, wished that she would live. That she would be able to once again fly with Tobias, or go to the mall, fight, anything. In a moment of weakness she gave up, she gave up all of her hope and her faith in herself…and her friends." I continued on as they started at me, not believing at first but then realizing that they knew it was true. "Rachel herself was not evil…" It sounded so weird talking about myself that way… "As the Ellimist once told her, she was a happy accident created by the human race to help itself in survival. He didn't place her there on earth, the great warrior wasn't one that was meant to fight, or live. Crayak helped in her creation, after she was born he knew that she would do great things for the Animorphs, help them tremendously, so he snuck around the rules and tweaked her anger, her rage. But just by a little, just so that she would love the battle, so that she would become addicted to it and he knew that was what would either lead her to kill Jake, or to get herself killed in battle." I talked on until I found myself remembering things, the things in my life that hadn't seemed so important… and realized now that that was all that mattered. 

I stayed on the ship with them for months until we had run out of food supplies, when we ran out we went back to earth, back to the place that I thought I would never see again, Home. 

Jake told us to stay in close contact until we could leave again, this time we would have more supplies. They trusted me now like I was one of them. I tried my hardest to contain my temper and my bossiness while on the ship so that they wouldn't suspect anything wrong. But Tobias suspected something, I knew that he would, he would figure out that I knew more to what I was saying even though I had told them almost everything, he could tell that there was something familiar about me. And oh how I wanted to tell him, to tell him everything, that I remembered and that I was back and he would never lose me again, but I knew deep down inside of myself that that was a mistake, that that would lead to the destruction of everything I knew and loved.

They got me a car, and a place to stay. I told them that I had been under yeerk control for so long that I couldn't remember my name, or where I had come from. It was a really bad lie but they seemed to buy it. I told them to call me Faith. I had always liked that name and thought it suitable for my position, the only thing that helped me believe I was actually here; living was my faith in my friends, and the meddling Ellimist. 

I drove my car down to the memorial, it was a long drive but I didn't mind, I wished to see it and see myself, my own grave. I had learned that the president had given a speech at the service; I would have liked to see that, I did see it in a way but not in person. I stepped out of my car and walked over to the memorial. I looked at it and cried, only 16 years old, at that age the only things I was supposed to be thinking of were friends and boys. But no, I suffered a death where I died in battle, just a kid. 

"Why'd you do it?" I asked myself as I sat down, facing the memorial, the sun was setting and there was a cool breeze blowing over me. "We were so young, only 13 when it started, and only 16 when it ended…" there was silence and the only sound heard for a long time was the gentle chirping of the birds in the trees. After three hours of just sitting there I got up and started to walk away. I looked up towards the sky where I thought I saw a red-tailed hawk catching a thermal, heading east, but then again it could have just been an illusion…


	2. Have Faith in me

**I hope you all like the fic!**

It took a year to fully restock the ship. Over that time I had seen Cassie…I had helped her with the Hork-Bajir and we once again became friends. She had broken up with Ronnie, realized how important Jake was to her. After he came to her asking for Tobias, she tried to get to the ship as fast as she could. She got there as they were taking off…she thought that she would never see Jake again… 

She was coming with us this time, so were a few other people that seemed useful. The mission was still kept top secret though, they once again left without giving notice to anyone but still having people taking care of things for us, as though they were there "just incase" we left. 

"Why do I feel like I'm on Star trek?" I asked as we once again boarded The Rachel. I had become more distant as time went on, trying not to get to attached, thinking that it could be over any day… 

Tobias had been watching me; he didn't trust me and I understood why. He had seen me at the memorial, staring at my own grave. I had also gone to see my mother, I didn't tell her who I was, and I simply said that I was a friend that was here to see if they needed help. My mother had welcomed me in, after the war was over they moved back to our original house, and my mom now stayed in closer contact with Jake's parents, said that they got along better than they used to. Jordan had skipped two grades and was now a freshman in college, study tactical warfare and nuclear fission. Sarah was eleven-years-old now, she hardly remembered me. My mother said that at my memorial, Sarah hadn't said a word, she had just stood there until she raised her little hand pointed towards saying "Bird," when Tobias grabbed my ashes and flew away. My father had been killed in the war; his yeerk had betrayed Visser One so he was executed shortly before we arrived at the pool ship. 

So anyway, I was walking on The Rachel with my bags packed and Cassie behind me complaining. "How could you pack so much stuff…I swear did you buy that all last night?" I tried to keep myself secret but when you love the mall, you love the mall! 

Behind Cassie was Jake; two days before we left they had gotten married. I thought it was the most romantic thing I ever saw them do…I sat there in the chapel and cried, how long had I hoped that Tobias and I would get married, that we would survive the battle, the war? But no, I had died; I had died and left him there all alone, with no one to love him… 

"Okay, everyone knows where their quarters are?" He asked as we all got onto The Rachel. Jake had become a little more upbeat and not as depressed since we got back, since he got Cassie back, and Cassie seemed to feel the same way although she had left behind someone that had truly loved her. Ronnie had been heartbroken but he stayed on the Hork-bajir project and tried to remain friends… 

"Yes fearless leader sir!" Marco shouted while recognizing Jake with his hand on his forehead then pointing it out. "Jeanne your with me." He laughed as she hit him in the groin. 

"I don't vink so!" she said as she walked over to me smiling. We had become good friends, she had reminded me of myself in a way, before the war that is. She was full of dreams and dirt never did cling to her. 

I tried so hard to block out the memories of my life before death whenever I was around them, the Animorphs but that seemed impossible. Things that I knew happened and things I wanted people to remember haunted my dreams. 

I was trapped! Trapped as a rat for the rest of my life, no I couldn't let this happen. I screamed and bellowed in thought speak as he walked around my cage, as the doomed Animorph had walked around my cage taunting me. "You will die David! I will kill you myself." I screamed in my sleep, then I was suddenly in the alley with a rat in front of me, I didn't know what to do, I still didn't. "I won't take your life." I said quietly as I stared at him. He told me that he figured I wouldn't and started to once again taunt me, bring up memories from within memories that I had so desperately tried to conceal. "I had no choice!! I have to protect them Jake told me to do it, he told me to! I was the only one that could do it! I was there, I was the one that –…" 

"Faith!" Jeanne struggled to get me up as I screamed in my sleep. Suddenly I was awake and I saw her looking at me. 

"What did I say?" I asked her quietly as she let go and sat down on her bed, which was place a few feet away from mine. 

"Many things, mostly gibberish but…" She hesitated as she looked down at her hands then at me. "You screamed on and on in rage about someone named David, Crayak's offer…and the Ellimist. How do you know these things?" We sat in silence for minutes; I sat there with my chin resting on my knees and my arms wrapped around my legs. 

"Never tell anyone of what I say in my sleep. Never say a word to anyone." I looked at her. "If you do I will kill you, I will give you a death worse than my own." With that she shut up and went back to sleep. I trusted her with my life, but I wanted to get the point across, no one should know about my dreams. 

I tried to go back to sleep but was restless so I eventually got up and walked over to the "kitchen." The andalites had done a wonderful job in modernizing the living space for us; it was now like a house on wheels, or a house in space to be exact. I went to the fridge and grabbed the ice cream and a spoon then sat down at the table.

"What are you doing out here so late?" I turned around and in an instant had my spoon a centimeter away from its head when I realized it was Tobias in human form. "A little jumpy, aren't we?" he asked with a sardonic smile. 

"What are you doing…who are you?" I quickly asked as I realized "I" had never seen Tobias in human morph. He had grown…he was 25 now, his birthday would be next week, did he remember it? 

"No, I think the question is who are you and what are you doing here?" He asked coldly, I now knew that he was gone, almost nothing could bring him back completely… 

"My name is Faith I am the third officer under the command of Captain Jake Berenson and if you move so much a hair I will kill you." 

"I'm tobias." He said slowly as I put the spoon down and returned to my ice cream. 

"I've never seen your human form before…" I said quietly as he sat across form me. 

"I haven't morphed human for five years tomorrow…" he said with a frown on his face, I had forgotten that it was the anniversary of my death… no wonder they were all quiet lately. 

"You like Ben and Jerry?" I asked as I got him a bowl of rocky road ice cream and a spoon. 

"No." He said with a blank expression on his face as he began to walk back to his quarters. I wanted to stop him, to tell him who I really was, how much I still loved him but I just stood there and watched him walk away. 

We were on The _Rachel_ for months before we found the blade ship again. It had been wondering around Kelbrid space, still deserted and yet possessed by The One. 

"So we meet again Jake the yeerk killer." It sneered as it melded into the form of Ax. "Oh and I see that you have brought the tree hugger with you also? Your married now, you always said you would get married." 

"That is not of your concern." Jake replied coldly…Cassie was three months pregnant. "We wish to make an agreement of peace, and we want Andalite War Prince Aximilli-Esgarouth-Isthill back with us." 

"Under one condition." It said as it once again melded its form…it became me! The way I used to look, the way I was. "Bring me Faith." She laughed as I stepped into view. Jake was dumbfounded that he had wanted me. 

Tobias stepped into view, he morphed human more often now, and I guess he wanted to feel that he had some humanity left in him. The One looked at him evilly and once again shivered. "Still alive I see? Oh Tobias." She said with a grin. "Are you having fun playing detective, your very close to the answer isn't he Faith?" She asked as I stood next to him and beamed at her. "You look tired, having trouble sleeping?" It was true, the past few weeks the nightmares had become so intense that I stopped sleeping all together. My dreams would now repeat every night, my last moments before the change, before everything had happened. I would watch myself make a deal with the Crayak and then something more powerful than even he saving me, saving a part of me, my soul. But the pain of it was unbearable, and I figured that she felt it too. 

"I believe you have been having trouble yourself." I said slyly, she looked at me with rage in her eyes. 

"Yet you still have a secret, I work for the Crayak, I know who I am and so do they but do they know you Faith? Why did you pick that name, I would have just stuck with the original." She smiled. "After all Rachel sounds so much prettier than faith." My heart stopped and I felt as though both of my universes had collided. I looked around but they stayed there looking at her, watching her talk when she looked at me again. "Don't worry, that's our secret for now, they didn't hear." They did hear that as Jake started to give out orders of attack. 

"No!" I said as I ran up to Jake. "Give me command of the ship, I know what she'll do, our best chance is to do the opposite." 

"I also know who SHE is god dammit she's my cousin Faith, or at least a part of her and she's still alive, I am one of the only people here that does still know her, that's all I've been thinking about the past five years, how I messed up and how I killed my brother and my cousin." I let him rest then he looked at me and I smiled. 

"You don't have to worry anymore Jake, please trust me." He looked at me as thought he had déjà vu, then he nodded with a familiar smile. 

"I knew I knew you from somewhere…" He whispered, then to the crew. "Faith is in charge listen to her, she knows what she's talking about." I ran over to the pilot controls where Mendorash was sitting. "You see that planet on the monitor?" I asked him as I pointed to it. 

"Yes." He replied, even though he had permanently morphed human he was still an Andalite. 

"Good, take us there. Land the ship in the southern hemisphere latitude 46 and longitude 87." He obeyed and we proceeded to the planet…


	3. The Beginning of the end...

"Where the hell are we going!" Tobias demanded as he ran up to me, he was pissed. "We have to stay here and rescue them." 

"We are here to rescue Ax, one person." I said trying to hide my anger. 

"No, we have to try to save her, if a part of her is alive…" He trailed off, looking at the now blank view screen then back at me. 

"That isn't Rachel, you have to realize that." We were now shouting back and forth. 

"Yes it is! I saw her, she looked at me the way she used to, I saw it for a second!" he continued to scream. 

"What you saw was an incarnation of evil, she is not Rachel, she would never be m…Rachel do you understand so unless you want to get everyone killed then I suggest that you get back into your seat Birdboy because it's going to be a long ride." He looked at me, shocked. 

"You can't tell me what to do. You have no idea what I've been through and now I see her! I saw her Faith, you can't tell me that you know that she IS NOT RACHEL. You can't tell me that you know for a fact that there isn't one ounce of her, the only person that has ever loved me in there!" His face was red from frustration and he panted with tears streaking down his face. 

"Yes I can." I said calmly. "I know for a fact that she isn't there…" I hung my head down in shame as he walked up to me; I wanted to hug him, for him to wrap his arms around me and for everything to be okay. Then I slipped back into reality. "What are you talking about?" He questioned me. 

"Faith, we are now entering the atmosphere due to land on the surface…" Mendorash punched some buttons in on the board. "In exactly 16 minutes and 43 seconds and counting." He stared at the control panel and continued to pilot it as we all got into our seats. 

"What were you talking about?" Tobias demanded as I looked at him I once again saw everything flash before me but I also saw something else, a change of some sort and I saw him, the Ellimist looking at me…smiling in his old weakly man form. 

I looked at Tobias, the view screen; Tobias, the mirror, Tobias, the mirror, Tobias, and then I put my head down and looked at the floor. "Because if Rachel was completely The One…" I whispered as I raised my head and looked in Tobias's eyes. "I wouldn't be here." 

"What do you mean?" He asked, still not realizing what I had just said. 

"If there was a part of her still in The One…" I hesitated, thinking of how this would change what we were doing, he wouldn't let me go into the battlefield knowing that I was alive…in a way. "Then she would have let us free because you know that she can overcome almost anything." I finally said with a frown. 

* * * * * * * * * * 

The planet was much like Earth, that's what I was counting on when I told Mendorash to take us down to what I hoped, was a jungle. My beliefs were justified when we landed. "Great work." Jake said as he patted my on the back. The One had so many forces that she could gather together to kill us, so many races and species that she could command to execute us, but I knew that for the legendary Animorphs…she would come in person with just a few comrades that she knew she could count on, after all she was me. 

I had our crew split into two groups, there were 12 members, Jake, Myself, Tobias, Marco, Jeanne, Cassie, Mendorash, Santorelli, a young scientist named Sweeny, a technician named Poland, and two other pilots (after the last encounter we figured we needed the best) named James and Kelly. "Okay, here's how it goes." I started once everyone was lined up, most of them were still clueless to why I was in the lead, but accepted it anyway. 

"I want Mendorash, Santorelli, Sweeny, Poland, James, and Kelly in one group meaning that I, Jake, Cassie, Tobias, Marco and Jeanne are in the other group." I saw Marco wink at Jeanne while she gave him the middle finger. 

Two hours later we had all of our supplies and a plan worked out, we would lie low until we knew that she was on the planet, then we'd give her the bait-me. I held most of Cassie's stuff, giving her room. No one had expected her or anyone on the ship to become pregnant for that matter but she wouldn't let Mendorash perform an abortion so she was still there with the rest of us, just taking it a little easy. 

"Why does this seem so oddly familiar?" Marco complained. 

"If your too tired morph to get ahead, scout the area, make sure that she's not there ready to kill us. Because if you want to then go ahead, it would save us a lot of time." I responded. 

"Since when are you in charge?" 

"I put her in charge man." Jake slapped Marco on the back with a smile on his face, Marco thought that odd but then let it pass. 

No sign of anyone yet. Tobias reported from the air, he figured that as a hawk it would be easier to get places, before we left they had given the morphing power to everyone, when I felt the slight ticklish feeling run through my body and the ecstatic urge to morph…I knew I was really alive. 

"Keep looking, she'll come down with a cloaked ship, you might want to look for a sort of ripple in the air, then once she's landed she'll either take the form of Ax or of Rachel, or that nasty metal rimmed teeth thing." I said disgusted, how could I become that, even a small portion of me be that monster? "Remember, she has Crayak on her side. All we have is the morphing capability and some really kewl guns." I laughed trying to ease off the tension. 

We set up camp for the night, with one person keeping watch at all times, I volunteered first. The landscape of this planet was remarkable. The grass was a deep shade of green and the trees had all different varieties of colored leaves. The air was cool and easy to breath in, not like the kind you would expect to have in a jungle. There were also beautiful meadows every mile or so that made me feel I was back in Tobias's meadow in the woods on earth. The sky was a brilliant shade of pink/dark purple and the two moons were in the crescent stage, looking as though they were linked to each other. 

"Beautiful isn't it?" Jake asked as he walked over to me, I hadn't seen him this happy since before the war started… 

"Yeah, kind of makes you wonder who could create such a thing." I said softly although I knew that the Ellimist must have made it, it was a mix between earth and the Andalite home world. 

"How did you get back?" He asked me as I suddenly remembered that he knew who I was. "Why didn't you tell them." I looked at him, his eyes looked aged far older than 27, but there was still an innocence in them, the innocence that I had long tried to protect inside of them. 

"I don't know, all I remember is the Ellimist coming to me, telling me that I mattered, honoring me…" I turned my head to make sure that everyone was sleeping then I looked back at Jake. "After that I saw everything, I felt the whole universe like I had imagined the Ellimist must feel and then time froze when I saw you ram into the blade ship, you all would have died. I wished to go there, to save you and the next thing I knew I was on the ship and this girl, running towards the reflection of myself, ready to die to save all of you…again." There was a long silence, total silence…even the birds were quiet. "Get everyone up!" I yelled as I ran to get the weapons. 

I ran up to the top of the hill that we were camping on and I saw them, her. They were walking up the steep slop, two of them. She had split herself in half, she was walking up and next to her was Ax. I turned back to the campsite, "everyone up and in position!" I screamed as the sleepy crew got up, in the distance I saw Mendorash's group also get up and start to run towards us. 

She stopped in front of me as everyone got up and we stood in a straight line. "Why hello everyone, what are you having a party without me?" She asked as her eyes went over everyone in the line, passed over me then stayed on me. 

"Now this is déjà vu isn't it?" She asked with arrogance in her voice, she had been Crayak's toy for many years, she probably was never defeated in battle. 

"Hello Rachel." I gulped. 

"Hello Rachel." She replied as all hell broke loose. 

From behind her were around 30 soldiers, human, Hork-Bajir, taxxon, and other things I couldn't even recognize. "We've been in worse situations before." I whispered under my breath as everyone began to morph. 

Xena? Marco asked astounded as he started his gorilla morph. 

"In the flesh, so to speak." And then…time stopped and I was once again in the vast emptiness of space and the Ellimist was in front of me. 

**Hello.** He said softly. **I have a proposal for you.**

"I'm listening." I replied. 

**Crayak has his drode and now a part of you, someone, a being much more powerful than me took your soul out when Crayak transformed you. This is a reason I still do not know but you are here. Your lifeline is almost up, you know that but you still fight.** He sounded amazed. 

"Yes, I fight for my friends and my family." I said swiftly. 

Indeed you do, this is the final battle between Crayak and I, and this is the final war in the final stage of our game. You are the one that can turn the tide of the war, you are the one that can help us win… His voice echoed through my head as I was once again on the battlefield. 

"Hurry!" I heard Jeanne yell as she ran past me with a mega gun as Marco liked to call them. 

The battle raged on for hours and when it was done we were all still miraculously alive, we had destroyed all of her warriors and she and Ax were all that remained.

"Bring me the girl." She said, the arrogance was gone. "Bring me the key of the war…" she whispered.

"Hello." I said walking up to her, she was beaten and torn. I had done most of that damage, somehow I was the only one that affected her but as it seemed, whenever she hurt me, she herself would be hurt.

We stood there, facing each other for what seemed like an eternity until I was aware of two new presences around us. Ellimist and Crayak, they were here to watch the final show, they were here to help their champion and see how the war would end, whether it was for their favor or for the other's… 

And so it began…


	4. The return of an illusion

Untitled

I knew that the whole universe was watching us, me. I turned around and looked behind me, there they were, the only people in the universe that had ever truly mattered to me besides my own family, Jake, Cassie, Marco, Tobias, and the Ellimist. Oh how I wanted to freeze this moment, to hold onto it and live here with them forever but I knew that it was impossible.

I looked at each of them and as I did they returned a look of indifference, as though there was a fog in their mind blocking what I was…who I was. Time seemed to once again freeze; the Ellimist was giving me my chance to say hello…and goodbye. 

I walked up to Tobias with tears in my eyes, struggling to keep my tears concealed. He looked at me as though he were remembering something from a dream as I began to speak. "Tobias, I once told you I knew that she wasn't Rachel, that I was positive. I am positive Tobias, if any part of your love was in the Crayak's creature then I wouldn't be here…" My voice trailed off as he stopped squinting and looked into my eyes.

"Yes…" was all he managed to let out.

"Tobias, I love you and I always will, I never gave up on you, please believe me." I said as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Rachel…" He whispered, joy and sadness was filled in his voice as he looked at me, we kissed for what seemed like an eternity then let go, just looking into each other's eyes.

I blinked and when my eyes opened I found myself still standing in front of her, of me, of The One. Was it just a trick? Was the Ellimist trying to ease my soul as I fought? No, he hadn't, it was real that was what happened and it was that love I would fight for.

"Let's do this." I said…my voice sounded different yet oddly familiar.

"Welcome back Rachel." She said with irony in her voice as I realized I was back, I was me again! I was Rachel, Xena, Mall freak, and I was going to win this battle.

"Yes, I've been gone for a while," I said with joy in my voice. "Do you wish to know what I fight for?" I asked scornfully as I felt immense jolts of power flow through my body.

"Why, do tell." She replied coldly as she began to grow into what Crayak had told me I could become…as she changed into "Super Rachel."

"Love." I said as I stood there, she looked like King Kong compared to me but I wasn't afraid. "I fight for everything that we had fought for. You might have made a deal with the Crayak but I never did."

"We made that deal Rachel dear, don't fool yourself." She replied in her monstrous voice as she pulled her fist back and began to push it forward towards me. 

"You aren't a part of me, you never were. I'm not a monster; I'm not the monster that you have become. Release Ax." Her fist stopped an inch away form my face and began to shrink, within seconds standing before me was Drode. 

"Very smart." He said, he sounded amused although he knew he had lost it for Crayak. "You look cocky." He sneered as I felt the presence of 5 beings behind me, standing next to me. I looked around myself and I saw them, the Animorphs, including Ax. "Don't be." His metal jaw closed as the universe fell apart.

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	5. A New Beginning

Untitled

I opened my eyes and found myself in a room…it was so familiar yet I couldn't grasp where I knew it from. I got up and ran into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I looked like I was thirteen…I was thirteen. "Ellimist…" I whispered, I wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad, I still didn't know what was going on. The last thing I remembered was looking at the grief stricken Drode who knew that he was done for snap his jaw. I remembered oblivion and total chaos then waking up in my room, in my house.

"Ellimist." I said once again and as soon as the word slipped out of my mouth he appeared before me as a Ketran. "What sort of illusion is this?" I asked quietly as he looked at me smiling a strange Ketran smile. "What's going on?" I demanded, he wasn't answering me; he just stood there looking at me and smiling.

"I won." I saw everything flash before me as it had when I had died except now I saw my past; I remembered walking through the construction site, meeting Elfangor. But most of all, I remembered living, I remembered Tobias, I saw Tobias, I saw him once again trapped inside of a human body, not being able to fly.

"What happened to Crayak?" I asked wearily, knowing the answer, yet wanting to hear it, wanting to hear of the defeat of the thing that stole millions of lives across the galaxy.

"I won." The Ellimist repeated. "I won and gave you all a chance to live the way you would have, to live out your lives the way you deserve to live." He paused and changed his form to that of a weak old man, one of his favorites. "I won…and Crayak lost." He said with a tired smile. "Goodbye Rachel, I can promise you that I will be looking over you…over all of you." And with that I knew that I had said goodbye to the Ellimist, to Toomin, forever… I looked at my alarm clock, suddenly not knowing what I was doing there in my room just standing. I was going to be late for school! 

I got changed and ran downstairs with my books while grabbing an apple in the kitchen. I ran out the door and towards the bus stop. "Ow!" I said as I crashed into someone. "Sorry." I immediately said as I bent down to pick up the dropped books.

"No, I'm sorry, it was my fault." My heart stopped when I heard that voice…it was so familiar. I looked up and saw a boy in his late teens, squinting at me as though he needed glasses. He saw me, he stared right through me with his intense eyes, there was pain in his eyes, and I felt the urge to reach out and grab him and tell him it would be all right, but I didn't. I blinked and when my eyes re-opened I saw this guy Tobias from my school standing in front of me trying to help me with my books. 

"Don't think it was your fault, I should have been watching where I was going." I said as he helped me carry my books to the bus. There were these huge jerks that would pick on him on our bus but they left him alone today when I threatened them…there was something so familiar, a rush of power flowed through me as they listened and walked back to their seats on the bus, it was a familiar feeling, my adrenaline was rushing and I felt as though I had just won a battle…battle? What was I thinking?

I watched the boy Tobias as he walked onto the bus and sat in the seat in front of me to the right, there was something so familiar about him, something that seemed eternal, yet I couldn't grasp it for the back of my mind hid it from me, taunted me with little glimpses of things I knew could not be real. There was just something about his eyes… 

It was Friday; it was also one of those rare occurrences when I convinced Cassie to go to the mall with me. "Twenty-five percent off at Express, that's fine." I said to Cassie while we were walking through the mall. "But, same basic sweater, better mix of fabrics, forty percent off at Structure? Plus, the point is, this sweater goes with the jeans on sale at The Gap _or_ the jeans on sale at the department store, and the Express sweater only goes with The Gap Jeans."

"I know I'm going to be sorry I asked this," Cassie is my best friend and I love her like a sister – but she has no fashion sense, "but how can one sweater that is almost identical to another sweater not go with a pair of basically identical jeans?" Cassie was currently wearing an old tee shirt and overalls covered in dirt and manure. We argued on for about a minute or two until we saw my cousin Jake walking out of the arcade center with his friend Marco and that guy Tobias.

We all decided to walk home together; we had two choices, go the long, safe way around the abandoned construction site. Or we could take a short cut through the abandoned construction site where ax murderers would most likely kill us – we took the short cut.

There was an eerie silence and feeling of déjà vu as we all walked in quiet through the construction site. Tobias was looking up in the sky and Marco followed his gaze. "Oh my god! It's a flying saucer!" Marco screamed as a strange blue light hovered over us…within a second that light was gone and was replaced by that of an airplane.

"Marco, it's called and airplane…" I said sarcastically as I wiped away the feeling of déjà vu and walked home with Cassie – who slept over my house that night. 

"Rachel…" Cassie said when we got in my room after finishing a pizza. "Yeah?" I asked as I jumped on my bed and looked for my new Seventeen magazine. I looked back at Cassie; she looked so serious, so much older for a second. But like I said…just for a second.

"Don't make fun of me…" she hesitated as she looked out the window. "Something's not right, I mean, yes everything is better than perfect but I can't…I can't get this feeling out of my system that something went wrong, that something was supposed to happen and it didn't…" She looked at me with sadness in her eyes, but then a split second later her eyes had once again changed and she started talking about a new subject, as though she had never said a word about her déjà vu…

We woke up the next morning and walked around town, not having anything else to do. "What are you doing?" Cassie asked me laughing as I walked down the curb, doing cartwheels on it and little twirls. I looked at her and smiled.

"I'm a gymnast." I said bowing, when I looked down I fell onto the street and laughed as I got up.

"Real graceful, Rachel." Cassie said with a laugh as we walked to 711.

"Okay, my mom wanted Soda…" I repeated the list of things she had given me aloud as Cassie and I walked up and down the aisles of 711 looking for what she needed. I grabbed the Soda and turned around, knocking into someone that I hadn't seen coming.

"Oh, sorry-." I began to say when I saw who it was. It was this creep named Jack from our school, for some reason he thought that I was deeply in love with him and would never lay off me.

"Hi Rachel." He said with a smile. "I was thinking that we could leave this place and go somewhere…" 

I "accidentally" dropped the soda on his foot. "Oh, I'm sorry, did that hurt?" I asked calmly as a crowd started gathering around us. "You stupid bitch." He screamed as I smiled back. He walked out of the store and Cassie and I got back to our "shopping."

"Okay, I think this is everything." I said as I popped a piece of gum into my mouth. "Want some?" I offered Cassie. "Sure." She said while taking a piece. 

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